"And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city." (Matt. 10: 14-15 KJV)
How the Hardshell Baptists can affirm that many gospel unbelievers are "born again" and will be finally saved in the "day of judgment" in the light of the above words of the Lord Jesus is amazing. Those who do not receive the "words" of the apostles, the words of the gospel, will suffer a worse fate at the day of judgment than that of the wicked Sodomites. To tell those who reject the gospel that they may be saved in the day of judgment in spite of such rejection is to make Jesus into a liar.
Not only these words of Christ, but the whole bible is filled with threats of eternal punishment for those who reject the gospel. It is amazing how Hardshells stubbornly refuse to accept these teachings of scripture and go further by attempting to give to the words of Jesus, and other scriptures that teach the same, a perverted explanation, making the words to mean something other than what they actually say.
Here are some other verses that we have often stressed and which, like the above words of Jesus, show that gospel unbelievers are lost.
"And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day." ((II Thess. 1: 7-10)
"And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people." (Acts 3:23)
What is the destiny of the Sodomites? Listen to Jude:
"Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire...to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever." (7,13)
Why do the Hardshells not see how they are guilty of horrible sins? How is it that they can see themselves as guiltless in the matter of twisting scripture? How they teach counter to the clearest teachings of Christ and his apostles?
As a former "primitive" baptist, I can also attest to thier twisting of scripture in order to defend or uphold thier understanding of salvation. The "primitive baptists" hold to and teach that regeneration is a direct act of God which is not dependent or conditioned upon repentance to belief of the truth (with good works naturally following as a result). This conclusion is based on the biblical fact that all men are born spiritually dead (a.k.a total depravity). It is when they (and myself in time past) mix human logic and reasoning (instead of more scripture)to this point that thier conclusions end up contradicting much of the bibles teaching on salvation. You ask "How they teach counter to the clearest teachings of Christ and his apostles?". I answer that it is because the p.b. "spirit alone regeneration every time" concept produces a salvation scheme that can be well argued and proven by logic. To have ready answers to questions like " how are babies who die in infancy saved?" or "what about people that never heard the gospel?" or "how much knowledge is necessary for salvation?" gives the p.b. a sense of pride. It gave me a sense of pride.I thought that I had the truth about something that almost nobody else had.
ReplyDeleteThe p.b. concept of salvation deflates the tension between God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. This is appealing to some and is in my estimation one of the main motivations behind denying clear bible teaching. John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
John 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
A large amount of scriptures that teach these same truths are twisted, relegated to a "general rule" or flat out denied. It is gross. Whether all in the p.b. denomination are fully aware of thier contradictions to scripture or not, I dont know. But by God's grace I became aware.
God's warnings against unbelief and wickedness are no light matter and are not to be tampered with. It is every man's responsibility to obey God while depending and waiting on Him to work it out through us both now and forever. This much can be known.
Amen!
ReplyDeleteStephen